Posts Tagged web shows

“Clip Cup” is a satire of clip shows, an inherently godforsaken genre dominated on TV by Tosh.0 and online by Ray William Johnson. They’ve just released their fourth episode, a “live” shoot at of the Catholic Loyola Marymount University.

The first clip felt like a solid one-off joke. But “Clip Cup” has four episodes so far, plus two spin-offs, and they’ve managed to advance the gag each time. And each time, the Funny or Die audience mostly didn’t get it. Let’s watch!

Blogging a Jake and Amir clip feels like doing a special news report that 30 Rock aired last night, but fuck it, this was a good episode, and it features a guy I never expected to appear in a CollegeHumor sketch, Dan Klein from The Jerry Seinfeld Program. His performance here is satisfyingly absurd.

Maybe you have a lot of time? That’s not a bad thing! People act like it’s lazy to relax but it’s not and you are “in luck” right now. Because these little idle conversations between comedians Connor Ratliff and Cathryn Mudon last three to five minutes each and there’s no real plot but why does there always have to be a plot in everything?

Great title amirite? Sex Teenagers is a cancelled show from Channel 101 (a monthly screening series in LA) that I’d watch as a full TV show. It started as a parody of high school dramedy. But it stayed inventive and satisfyingly raunchy while growing character arcs to balance out its gags.

Conveniently, you can test if you’ll like this show by watching the pilot episode’s 13-second cold open. Technically, the first thing that ever happens in this show is a punchline.

Channel 101 is just a bunch of filmmakers in L.A. who make 5-minute TV episodes for each other. Each month they hold a screening and vote which shows get to make more episodes.

They just released the second episode of Gumbel, about a British soccer fan named Bryant Gumbel (“yeah, like the fucking newscaster”) dealing with a breakup ugh ugh ugh that description doesn’t tell you a single thing about how fresh and fun this show is.

It Gets Betterish is about the modern gay struggle WAIT LET ME FINISH in the way Parks & Recreation is about the governing process. Eliot Glazer (disclosure: FRIEND) and Brent Sullivan are a couple of gay guys in New York. They get into one-camera-sitcommy situations.

Just four episodes in, It Gets Betterish already feels slicker than most year-old shows. The payoffs feel satisfying, the camerawork is exciting and the jokes are witty. If we show this to Michele Bachmann she’ll definitely go “Oh my god I changed my mind about the gays” and then she can be President.

In “Uncastable”, comedians Mikala Bierma and Mike Lacher harass actors auditioning for bit parts and commercials. While the series is made by a group of friends, you can come into these cold and instantly empathize with the actors.